Best Laid Plans
by Philote
Summary: Adam has long since had a plan. He finally has the perfect means to implement it. Unfortunately, the key player is complicating matters.


Title: Best Laid Plans

Author: Philote

Fandom: Heroes

Characters: Adam, Peter

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: The characters and situations of _Heroes_ do not belong to me. I make no money from this story. Please don't sue.

Warnings: Spoilers for Season 2, through "Powerless"

Summary: Adam has long since had a plan. He finally has the perfect means to implement it. Unfortunately, the key player is complicating matters.

Author's Note: Written for the 'Haste makes Speed' prompt at Taming the Muse.

oOo

No one sees the world the way he does.

People see the corruption, sure. But no one has observed it firsthand through so many years; no one else understands that it will only repeat. It will only get worse. Unless someone wipes the slate clean; unless someone has the courage to start over.

Of course, none of them are ever going to listen to him, no matter how many generations play his keeper outside this cell. This burden is his, and his alone. And he will have to find some way to implement it.

Opportunity will present itself. It always does, if you have the patience to wait for it. And the time, of course. Adam has nothing but time.

Haste is a relative thing for an immortal. Speed is only a factor for people with limited time and something to lose.

He's long since forgotten what that was like.

So he waits. For thirty years, he waits.

And then one day they open the cell next door, and they lock in his salvation.

He's quiet for days, waiting patiently. Always waiting. Eventually he makes a proper introduction and coaxes one from the boy in return. He has an ironclad memory; he'd know the name immediately even if it weren't so recent. But it is. And of course, with the genetics in the Petrelli family, their children were bound to be unique. He isn't even surprised. He does appreciate the irony. Thirty years ago, Angela Petrelli turned on him and helped lock him in here. Now, her son is his cellmate.

Peter starts talking to him, bit by bit. It takes several days and much talk of explosions before Adam realizes what Peter never comes out and says; that Peter doesn't just have _one_ power. As he gathers each little tidbit Peter offers, he begins to get an idea of the sheer range of what the boy is capable of.

Adam's encountered countless abilities throughout the years. But he's never met anyone like Peter. And because of the way he sees the world, because he automatically views the big picture, he understands the scope of Peter's powers. Unlimited potential, locked up in such a sweet and naïve package.

It is then that he knows his patience has finally been rewarded. The answer to all his problems has just fallen into his lap. And he is so deliciously malleable, just waiting for the right mentor to come along.

He has to get Peter to trust him, to feel a certain kinship with him. He needs that big heart fully on his side.

It really isn't difficult. He is not inexperienced at this. He knows how to find what a person needs and fit himself smoothly into that roll. Father, son, lover, friend…brother. When Peter finally starts talking to him, _really_ talking to him, there's not one conversation that lacks Nathan. Big brother is clearly the most important person in Peter's life. In Nathan's absence here, he welcomes the surrogate that Adam easily becomes.

Then it's just a matter of time. He listens, he encourages, he sympathizes and supports. Peter opens up to him, about everything, until he can not only list Peter's powers and the people he absorbed them from but also recite the most important moments in his childhood and document his romantic woes. Any little piece of information might prove useful. He never forgets.

All of this through a solid wall. It's definitely one of the most unique ways he's ever built a relationship. He starts to try picturing a face to go with the voice. The conversation wherein they try to describe themselves to each other is awkward and humorous and somehow more honest than he's felt in decades.

One night, when they're discussing Nathan's injuries in the explosion and the probability of his current condition, Peter gets a bit emotional. He's teary; Adam can hear it in his voice and in the sniffles he tries to keep quiet. He wishes he could reach through their barrier and offer some tangible comfort.

And then he realizes what he is thinking, and it hits him like a solid blow to the chest, sucking the air out of his lungs.

He doesn't _want_ to be with people, not for their benefit. He doesn't feel for people, not anymore. Not for a long time now.

But he's starting to feel for Peter. He feels protective when he hears someone enter Peter's cell. He doesn't like it when he can hear pain in the young voice. Heaven help him, he _cares_. Emotions he'd thought long-dead are awakening. It discomfits him more than he would have thought possible.

He goes quiet for a while then, and Peter starts to sound concerned about _him_. He tries to block it out, and he's unsuccessful. He starts evaluating his reactions, and he realizes he missed a rather important detail of the big picture.

He doesn't get involved with people because time itself is so relative to him, because individual lives, no matter how brightly they might shine, are snuffed out like insects. They change, they age, they die. He doesn't. But Peter's getting to him because Peter is like him. Because for the first time in hundreds of years, he's connected to someone who could be more than a passing face in the crowds, someone who could conceivably be a long-term companion. And he _wants_ that.

He can't afford to want that. He has a higher purpose to fulfill.

Eventually, because this world will not abide innocence for too long, Peter might be able to understand why this has to be done. But not yet; right now he just needs to believe he's saving the world. And if Adam lets himself get too close in the meantime, he'll have trouble perpetuating the lie. Peter may be sweet and gullible, but he's got more than enough powers to discover that he's being played. Adam has to keep his wits about him.

Every once in a while, if a plan is truly great, speed is a worthy consideration. He decides to hasten the plan along. He needs to get Peter off the pills and get both of them out of here. He has to do this, and he has to do it before the attachment grows too strong.

He has old friends to kill, and a world to fix. He can't let something as pathetically human as his feelings get in the way.

oOo


End file.
